DELAYED YOUTH READAPTATION FACILITY BACK ON TRACK IN BEACONSFIELD
There's no place for NIMBYISM (or a not-in-my-back-yard attitude) when it comes to news a long-delayed youth protection facility to serve anglophones will finally come to fruition, albeit partially, in Beaconsfield as of this spring.
Batshaw Youth and Family Centres broke ground on its Elm Ave. campus in 2013 and had erected two buildings to house troubled youth by 2015, but the restructuring of regional health agencies and provincial budget constraints left the project in limbo for too many years.
During an information session in March 2013, Beaconsfield residents were told that the $50 million project will be for youth who face neglect or psychological and physical abuse. Average stays in Batshaw's open units are around 90 days. Close to 90 per cent of the teens served hail from the West Island or West End of Montreal.
Last month, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced the project is back on the provincial infrastructure funding agenda and the timeline for the project's completion will be fast-tracked, starting with the realization of a business case that will update cost estimates.
However, one must take into consideration that there are a few phases and completion of the entire Elm Ave. campus is targeted for 2027.
It's not yet clear how far the cost of this project will have ballooned since ground was initially broken in August 2013.
Batshaw's plans include renovating its open units at its Dorval campus, a site which also has higher security locked units for young offenders who may have been convicted of a violent crime.
As of May, the care of teens under youth protection will be transferred to the Beaconsfield campus from four open units in Dorval that will then be renovated over the course of two years, noted Katherine Moxness, director of youth services for the CIUSSS de l'ouest de l'île de Montréal, which oversees Batshaw.
The two closed detention units in Dorval were built several years ago following a failed legal challenge by the city that concluded in February 2013 when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
It's been a bumpy road for Batshaw — and the anglophone community it strives to serve — since 2001 when the health ministry okayed a $30-million project to relocate 13 units onto one site. In 2008, plans were adjusted so open units would be built in Beaconsfield and closed units in Dorval.
Once all the work is completed in the West Island, Batshaw will shutter its outdated Prévost campus, located about 65 kilometres north of Montreal.
The renovation work in Dorval will start in 2023 and once completed a year later, the open units in Beaconsfield will then be shifted back to allow for the completion of the Elm Ave. campus, which should include an additional three-storey residential building, an administrative/ clinical edifice, an educational wing as well as a gym facility. The Beaconsfield plans still have to be finalized with the ministry.
“We're hoping for a village look, as opposed to institutional,” Moxness said of the sprawling Beaconsfield campus.
“It's been a long time coming and it's something that is really needed.”
“No one asks to be under youth protection. It's stigmatizing enough. I think there needs to be an openness, an understanding that kids don't ask to be neglected. They don't ask to live in a situation where there is conjugal violence. They don't ask to be abused,” she added. “They are coming into care because they need our protection.”
While Batshaw officials will eventually hold an information session to update residents on its plans for the Elm Ave. campus, people should set aside concerns of closed units coming to this site since these are now established in Dorval.
Batshaw is mandated to take care of troubled youth and rehabilitate them, whether they are abused or convicted of a crime. It makes sense for better integration success to have units located in the communities that are close to where most of Quebec's anglophone population resides.